Research on Health Effects of Low-Level Ionizing Radiation Exposure Opportunities for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (2014) / Chapter Skim
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5 Opportunities for AFRRI
5 Opportunities for AFRRI
Pages 111-130
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From page 111... ...
Although its statement of work focuses on lowdose radiation, it also offers observations applicable to the full range of AFRRI's activities and on organizational issues, because the success of a low-dose program depends on the viability of the Institute's entire re search enterprise. 1 The committee's statement of task references "low-level" ionizing radiation; that termi nology is retained here and in other places where the report is presenting responses to these directives.
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From page 112... ...
AFRRI's research and development goals and collaborations with other government facilities, academic institutions, and civilian laboratories in the United States and throughout the world cover areas that receive relatively little attention elsewhere. Such areas include the pursuit of new drugs to prevent the life-threatening and health-degrading effects of high-dose ion izing radiation, the development of methods for rapidly assessing radiation exposure to ensure appropriate medical treatment, and the investigation of the effects of radiation injury combined with other insults, such as trauma, disease, and chemical exposures.
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From page 113... ...
The Institute's unique infrastructure, which would be difficult to reproduce elsewhere, positions it to contribute to research on the health effects of low-level ionizing radiation. Opportunities for Additional or Expanded Roles for AFRRI As documented in Chapter 4, AFRRI's research currently focuses on issues related to high-dose radiation exposure.
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From page 114... ...
At present, the guidance and forms exist as PDFs and the software tools as Windows operating system programs. An opportunity exists for AFRRI to make its nuclear and radiological incidents response educational materials, forms, and tools -- which are already amenable to civilian applications -- more useful to both the military and civilians by adapting them to modern digital devices such as tablets and smartphones and assuring their applicability to low-level exposure incidents.
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From page 115... ...
AFRRI is well suited for this role as a triservice organization with the required in-house expertise. Management of Psychological Effects Associated with a Nuclear or Radiological Event Nuclear and radiological exposure incidents pose special challenges because the stressor is invisible and cannot be sensed or avoided like other threats (Vyner, 1988)
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From page 116... ...
, but the Institute does not currently have psychologists, psychiatrists, risk-communication specialists, or professionals in related fields as members of its research staff.4 However, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) is well positioned to support training programs to give military health care pro viders and first responders the tools and techniques to communicate with service members and other responders who operate in potentially contami nated areas, treat psychological injuries, and deal with other issues raised in response to nuclear and radiological incidents.
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From page 117... ...
The FY 2013–18 strategic goals for the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense include combining "common requirements and [seek ing] common solution sets in order to achieve interoperability across the larger [radiological/nuclear]
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From page 118... ...
The Institute's laboratory and reactor facilities are an asset not shared by many universities with graduate healthphysics programs and are well suited to train military health physicists, who face some unique challenges not encountered by their civilian counter parts; these include potential exposure to nuclear weapons, reactors used to power ships and submarines, military equipment that uses radioactive sources, and nuclear battlefield operations. Each year the service branches send junior officers to attend civilian universities to earn graduate degrees 7 An accredited health physics M.S.
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From page 119... ...
Specifically, implementation of the nascent USUHS program in Radiation Biology would help accelerate training in that field, address concerns over coming shortages of professionals, and facilitate the recruitment of new researchers for the Institute, including those with low-dose radiation expertise. The success of a USUHS program in radiation biology or in other radiation-health-related fields will depend critically on the active support of the Military Services, which determine which programs their personnel may be sent to for advanced training, and on the availability of research and graduate education funding.
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From page 120... ...
The potential exists to link these data with health information gathered by the military health system and the Department of Veterans Affairs and use so-called bigdata techniques to conduct analyses of radiation exposure. Opportunities for Expanded and Additional Outside Collaborations Collaborations with Other Governmental Entities AFRRI's responsibilities overlap with those of three other federal bodies with which it would seem to have natural affinities because of their common interests in the consequences of nuclear and radiological material releases.
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From page 121... ...
In the past 10 years, it has undertaken three initiatives aimed at ionizing radiation and health: a 2005 effort to foster technologies to minimize the warfighter's vulnerability to high-dose radiation exposures via vaccines and novel antidotes (DARPA, 2005) , a 2008 initiative to develop lowcost and minimally-invasive biodosimeters (DARPA, 2013)
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From page 122... ...
As noted in Chapter 4, the Institute's radiation facilities are underused: the TRIGA reactor is free 79% of its operating days, the 60Co source is free 50.5%, and the low-level source is virtually unused. Thus, an opportunity exists for AFRRI to expand its participation in low-level radiation health effects research by making its facilities more open to use by outside investigators interested in conducting research consistent with its mission.
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From page 123... ...
Scientific Leadership AFRRI's management structure includes a Scientific Director in a senior leadership position. A 1968 staff memorandum (AFRRI, 1968, p.
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From page 124... ...
. The committee believes that having a Scientific Director in a leader ship position helps to achieve several goals that are important for AFRRI if it wishes to pursue a more extensive program of research on the human health risks from exposures to low-level ionizing radiation and, more gen erally, to promote its standing and visibility in the radiobiology research c ommunity -- goals that would not necessarily be fulfilled by someone serv ing in an advisory role: • As the scientific point person within the Institute, the Scientific Director has the standing to plan and carry out short- and long term institutional research goals; make sure that the staff needed to achieve these goals are in place; monitor and review the perfor mance of senior research staff; and provide continuity across the tenures of AFRRI's Directors.
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From page 125... ...
. The committee believes that AFRRI's existing and new research on h uman health risks from exposures to low-level ionizing radiation, along with the rest of its scientific enterprise, would benefit from a strong, con tinuing external program evaluation that examined the totality of the Institute's work.
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From page 126... ...
1) Thus, AFRRI may benefit if more of its radiobiology research were supported by RDT&E funds, leaving O&M research funding to support exploratory studies and educational program costs.
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From page 127... ...
REFERENCES AFRRI (Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute)
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From page 128... ...
AFRRI white paper on medical and psychological effects of RDDs. Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, September 1999.
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From page 129... ...
2013. Uncertain ties in estimating health risks associated with exposure to ionising radiation.
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